


You Are My Sunshine

by lukeyandlou



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Brotherly Love, Character Death, Gen, Osoroshi no Tabi, TMNT 2012, Tragedy, where Michelangelo dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 10:31:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11689809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lukeyandlou/pseuds/lukeyandlou
Summary: Life would always be dull without their sunshine - but they'd like to think that his warmth was still there. /Alternate Ending to Osoroshi no Tabi where Leo's nightmare was a reality/





	You Are My Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> So I’ve been obsessing over /that/ scene in Osoroshi No Tabi since it aired Sunday, and thought I would write this one before the hype burnt out. Next on my to do list is to finish the new chapter for Pills and Potions and an Apriltello request that I got from AO3!  
> Dedicated to my best friend Katie – who will scream with me about this later. She’s also on here as Hamato Michelangelo, and I recommend you read her human AU Double Helix – it’s my favorite human AU and has everything for both your angsty and fluffy needs!  
> Important Notice: For this storyline, Raph and Donnie aren’t dead, only were knocked out.   
> WARNINGS: Major Character Death, Violence, Language, Grief

Sound.

Sound is the basis of one in five of the basic human senses, sound holds speed and power. Power which does not fall in line with equilibrium, due to its many extents and many different reasons to exist – perhaps as all things may be considered. Sound which can be laughter, can be music, can be sobs, can be screams. Sound which is the soul of communication, and sound which had always been a friend of Michelangelo’s.

Michelangelo was loud, he was excited and he was painfully extraverted. He was accompanied by sound with every breath he took, sound that may come across as obnoxious or may come across as relief. He loved his music, and his jokes, and his laughter, and the many words in his unique dictionary that he could use in this big, marvelous world.

One sound is almost invisible compared to the sound of the whole world, but Michelangelo could be heard by anyone who had ever knew him. He often used it as a source of balance, signaling the rainbow hiding behind the clouds or the purity shining in the dark.

Perhaps that’s why Leonardo found it so ironic that this particular sound from him was one that would cut deep into his brain for the entirety of his existence.

The horrific gushing was on replay in his mind, paralyzing his brain from making an action or from saying a word. It had been exactly two seconds ago, but the amplification was still screaming loud into his eardrums, and he could almost match it to how his baby brother’s face must have looked when Jei stabbed into his gut in cold blood.

Before he and his brothers could move, the odious wolf threw their little brother over the side of the hill, as if he were a piece of garbage under his feet.

Raph was the next to charge, his intensified fury overshadowed by the missing piece in Leo’s chest which could convince him that he himself was bleeding out against the blade. He was in too much shock to react before Raph was thrown off as well, the status of the situation finally knocking him in the face.

“N-No,” he started to say, but Donnie was the first one to react, also throwing himself into the malicious clutches of the murderer. Leo tries his best to run and stop him, but the black magic throws him violently towards the ground, disappearing from sight and leaving Leo to stand on his own.

He doesn’t even notice himself falling, or if he did, the sound of the gushing, ripping organs was echoing too loud for him to even feel it. But suddenly, he was against the black pavement under the height of the cliff, and the first thing to wake him was the warm, thick liquid reaching the brims of his wrists.

The familiar sensation of his brother’s shell gives him the confidence to pull himself up, assuming that he was safely in the company of one of his brothers. His eyes crawl open almost reluctantly from the new sensation of a warm, thick liquid on his fingers, as if his eyes were trying to shield him from the horror that was to come in. It turns out that the pool of blood he had unknowingly been laying in was all pouring out from his one and only Michelangelo.

_Could it even be possible for that much blood to come out of such a small body?_

Michelangelo still had a steady rising of the chest, his eyes wide open and his face painted with terror and pain, the smell of death already seeping off of him. He was holding a hand out towards Leo, which was twitching violently, and he was wheezing harshly as he started to choke on his own blood.

“Mikey!” Leo held him up, wiping the blood that was dripping onto his chin. “Mikey, buddy, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay, I promise. Just stay with me, okay? Don’t close your eyes.”

“Leo?” he asked, barely above a whisper.

“Yes, little one?” he responds desperately, “What can I do for you?”

“Can you stay with me?”

Leo’s eyes tighten with fresh silent tears, cuddling his dying brother closer to his chest. “I’ll always be here. I’m never going to leave you Mikey.”

“Hey, don’t be sad,” Mikey says, shakily raising a hand to wipe Leo’s tear. “I don’t like it when you are sad.”

This only makes Leo cry more, almost losing control of keeping himself composed. “I’m sorry, baby brother.”

“You’re gonna get home soon and finish Space Heroes Next Generation, aren’t you? I bet the finale’s going to be a good one! It always sucks when things come to an end, but sometimes, we just have to accept it,” he whispers, his punctured organ screaming from pain and his energy faltering dramatically.

“And you’re going to be watching it right there with me. You and Raph and Donnie, and all of us. You’re going to be there,” Leo says firmly, more so reassuring himself.

“I will be Leo,” he sighs sadly, losing his breath more rapidly, “Just maybe not in the way that you’d think.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Leo defends, his voice stern but cracking intensively.

“Leo?” he asks, and whether Leo wanted to admit it or not, he was barely hanging on to life.

“Yes Mikey?” he responds, nuzzling his face into his brother’s forehead. “What is it, sunshine?”

“Are you afraid to die?”

Leo’s spine paralyzes at the sentence, losing a large huff of breath. “I don’t know, Mikey.”

“I’m scared,” Mikey whimpers, “Is that okay?”

“It’s okay, kiddo,” he cries, “I’m here. I will keep you safe.”

He couldn’t stand for his little brother’s last moments to be so violent and painful.

“I th-think that y-you are going to do gr-great things. Y-You are so strong and I’m s-so proud of you Leo. You’re going to do gr-great things, o-okay Leo?” his voice was losing stability.

“You’re going to be doing them with me,” Leo rushes.

“I love you,” Mikey says, using his last bits to snuggle into Leo’s chest. “I’m g-going to b-be with Dad now, o-okay?”

“No, no you’re not,” Leo answers angrily. “Don’t you close your eyes on me, Michelangelo.”

Mikey looks up at him with a weak smile, the sides of his lips both pouring with blood and his face began to crackle. He looked up at Leo once more and his eyes slowly became more vacant, wide open and finally emptied of a soul, shutting close as Michelangelo took his very last breath.

“No,” he whimpers, his eyes locked on the ivory shade of his little brother’s skin and the twitching, deformed and twisted expression permanently fixed on his face. “No,” he repeats, running a hand across his brother’s body in search for a single sign of life, only to discover nothing but a hallow coffin for a spirit which was so lively. Now, the only warmth left was the bloodbath blanketing his entire chest flying from where Mikey had been cut down the middle, his organs torn into pieces and almost unrecognizable-

“NO!”

The echoes of his own voice send shivers down his spine, his body feeling electric and freezing all at once, with a billion blades slicing deeply into his skin and brain. His spirit falling completely void of life, much like the void of life in his baby brother’s corpse.

Feeling helpless and unbelievably susceptible, he begins to sob. The feeling of the cries is a fierce burning throughout his entire body, racketing his rib cage and seizing his grip. He can only hold his Michelangelo closer, as if holding him tight enough could stitch him back to life. He can think of nothing to do but hold his little one, feeling like nothing but a damaged child crying out for his brother.

“I can sense the evil inside of you, Leonardo.”

The taunt of the disgusting hoarse voice fueled his sudden grief into a different mode, and he learned quickly that sometimes ice is more lethal than fire.

He gently places Mikey back onto the floor, the stone possessing his plagued spirit giving him the strength to stand. His swipes his katana out from behind, seeing nothing but the clouds blinding all thought other than vengeance.

Jei raises his blade, still completely coated in his little brother’s insides, and Leo sets off to fatally attack.

The battle grows intense, but any sign of fear is completely faded by fuel of revenge. Just as Jei begins to overpower him, Leo’s eyes soften – reminding him that no matter what his rage, he himself is still a child. The realization dies almost immediately, taking his advantage to jump on top of Jei and hold him down by the ring of his neck.

“Do it, child,” the voice simmers in his ear, “It will not change the fate that you have brought your younger brother.”

Leo immediately gashes his Katana into Jei’s chest, digging until he feels the end of the blade reach the other side of the rock. He jams the blade repetitively, assuring that it was possible for Jei to feel triple more the pain than Mikey did. He looks down to see the wolf’s lifeless eyes and wishes to continue feeding his sadistic cravings, but remembers that his brothers are far more important.

Breathing heavily, Leo drags himself away from Jei and leans over the rock where Raph had fallen. He had a concussion, but still was breathing. He then ran over to Donnie, who’s arms were both cracked out of place but also had a pulse. That left Mikey – who was completely and undeniably _dead._

The word alone shoots out a scream, the thought of such a disgusting and awful permanence claiming his sunshine rotting his stomach out. He runs back to Mikey and picks him up again, returning to fits of sobbing and cradling him gently.

“MICHELANGELO!”

His sobs becoming aggressive fits, holding his forehead against that of his little brothers. “Please come back, baby brother. Please don’t leave me. I can’t live without you, please!”

His begs sound like the pathetic cry of a lost toddler as his previous murderous rage had completely collapsed into grief and the agony of fresh loss. He stares directly at Mikey’s face, evidence of the pain he had been feeling in his final moments, and how afraid he must have felt as he felt his life come to an end.

“L-Leo?”

An alarmed voice emerges from the corner, and although relieved to hear his voice Leo is too weak to respond.

Raph was in a daze composed of ringing and sharp tones, and although his pain was suffocating him he could not help but shake at the way his older brother’s voice sounded. The voice evidently belonged to him but nevertheless sounded nothing like Leonardo, broken down and hopeless and melting Raph with the feeling that the _worst_ of things must have happened.

Raph’s eyes open and see nothing besides the grey of the rocks and the shadowing navy sky, his anxiety locking him from turning back around. Nevertheless, he feels a sense of emptiness and longs to find its source, balling his fists tight enough to crack his fingers and forcing his body to turn.

He sees only Leo in hysterics over Mikey, who was laying limply in his arms – under what seemed to be a pool of blood. His mouth began to hang in confusion until the memory came flashing back – the memory of Jei stabbing into Mikey’s gut.

With a high-pitched yelp, Raph forcibly wobbles onto his feet, running dizzily and collapsing next to Leo and Mikey. He harshly grasps his little brother’s shoulders and Leo allows him to pull him as he falls back onto the ground in a fit of hiccups and hyperventilating.

“Hey Mike,” Raph says, his voice a bit slurred from his head injury. His vision drops to Mikey’s torn up chest, including the streaks of blood seeping from both sides of his mouth. “Hey, buddy. It’s okay now, alright?”

His skin burns with an aggressive flush of butterflies at the lack of response, his eyes wide enough to pop out of their sockets.

_Of course Mikey’s fine. He’s just feeling loopy from the concussion._

“MIKEY, GET UP ALREADY!”

He violently shakes his brother with all of his might, his head flopping around like a ragdoll. He slaps Mikey on the cheek in an attempt to awaken him, only for more blood to spray from his mouth.

“It’s not the time for games Mikey, c’mon!” he shouts, beginning to fall into laughter. “Okay, okay, I owe this one to you. This one was pretty good. You got me, you can get up now!”

Raph continues to laugh hysterically, holding his arm over his gut to contain himself.

“Mikey, you got me okay? I’m admitting you got me, and I am so gonna get you back for this, you little punk!” he affectionately shoves his shoulder, quirking his head in confusion and then holding him up by the back of his neck. “Michelangelo, you’ve got to wake up so we could go home.”

“Raph,” Leo lets out hoarsely, staring at Raph in broken sadness and a bit of fear, “Please.”

“I’m just waking up Mikey so we could get out of here!” he responds, smacking his little brother’s cheeks. “Get up, Mikey, get up! It’s time to wake up!”

“He’s dead, Raph!”

Raph’s eyes widen for a minute, is body seizing in a sharp tremble before the unsettling smile returns to his face. “W-What? That’s ridiculous Leo. You’ve gone completely bonkers. He’s not dead, I swear it! What would make you think that, huh?”

Leo only stares back at him in horror, his eyes glassy and foggy and so very afraid.

“Watch, I’ll prove it to you!” Raph exclaims, dropping Mikey harshly onto the ground and standing up in Leo’s face. “Donnie will tell you he’s not dead!”

Raph runs to where Donnie lay, tapping his chest to wake him. “Don, you alright?”

Donatello coughs a few times before awakening, feeling like he had been ran over by one hundred monster trucks. He had no ability to move his arms, which were bent in directions that they definitely shouldn’t be in.

He was about to lecture Raph about knocking the air out of his chest when suddenly he remembers what had happened shortly before Jei had attacked him and he sits up immediately, using solely the strength of his upper body without any use of his arms.

“Where’s Mikey?”

His tone is cold and emotionless, hallow and venomous all at once.

“He’s right over there, he’s okay. I’ll help you up, okay?” Raph responds, pulling Donnie to his feet. His strange aura and deranged expression make Donnie quite skeptical.

“Donnie…” Leo says half under his breath, hiding in a ball over their little brother.

“Leo’s acting crazy, Donnie, so I said you would tell him that everything’s okay. Mikey is doing this whole crazy prank and he’s not waking up, but I know he’s just playing too bad. Got Leo thinking he’s _dead_! You’ve got to tell Leo he’s okay, alright Donnie?”

“Raph, pull my left arm back into place.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s dislocated. I can make it work for now, but fix it. You know how to fix a dislocated elbow Raph, get to it!” he snaps, slightly intimidating Raph into immediately obeying. Leo only holds Mikey’s hand tighter, terrified by how out of character they all were being.

Raph does the movement in a quick and sharp movement, making Donnie shriek in pain and fall down to his knees. He holds his arm towards his chest and paces his fast breaths, taking in one deep breath before crawling over to Leo. “Let me see him.”

Leo looks back at Donnie and starts to cry again, his reaction only aggravating Donnie further. He jumps forward and flips Mikey over for himself, stopping his own breathing for a second at first glance.

“Mikey…” he whispers, shakily stroking a hand down the side of his brother’s cheek. He holds his face and stares at it, tears emerging in the copper in his eyes, and then he turns to Leo with not a hint of sadness. “Where is Jei?”

“I killed him,” Leo answers quietly, his eyes not moving from Mikey’s gash.

“Where is he?” Donnie reaffirmed, more power in his voice.

“O-over there by that rock. Why does that matter, Donnie?” Leo asks.

Donnie leans in to kiss Mikey’s forehead and then stands up, walking towards the site of Jei’s corpse. Although already a bloody mess, Donatello was not satisfied. Finding a small but sharp shard of rock, he uses all of his might to chuck it at Jei’s head, shattering his skull as he screamed as hard as his lungs could handle, a wail which almost sounded inhuman and would forever haunt their souls as they slept.

Smirking ruthlessly at Jei’s crushed skull, he throws the rock at the ground and vigorously sprints back to his younger brother, collapsing onto the carnage below him.

“What the fuck!” he screams, pounding a fist on Michelangelo’s shoulder. “How the fuck could you do this to me! You can’t just give up like that, Goddamnit! Don’t you do this to me, don’t you fucking do it Mikey. How could you do that to me?! You’re everything I have!”

“He’s not…He can’t be…”

“Yes Raph! He’s fucking dead, okay?! You can’t just act like everything is okay when it isn’t! Are you even listening to yourself, Raphael? LOOK AT HIM! HE’S DEAD!”

“Donnie stop it!” Leo protests, pulling Mikey away protectively and cupping his chin over his neck.

“No! I’m not going to stop! I’m not going to stop, I’m not,” he begins to tremble back and forth, his voice shaking away from audibility.

Raph is silent now, his face a blank canvas void of expression. Leo looks at him in terror, afraid of what was to come next, while cringing away from Donnie’s spiral into insanity. His only opulence was his baby brother’s body laying in his arms, just like Mikey always did. He always kept his sanity. Always did.

With a shrill shriek from under his barred teeth Raph collapsed, digging his face into Mikey and finally racketing into painful, eerie weeping. Leo held closer to the crook of Mikey’s neck and Donnie fell to his legs and the three of them lay in a pathetic huddle, harrowingly grieving their baby brother.

Usagi had climbed down from the top of the cliff, watching them in sorrow. He hung his head down in shame, feeling maybe that it was his fault for dragging these young ones into his fight and not moving fast enough to protect them. His greatest foe may be destroyed, but at the cost of an innocent child’s life. A child who didn’t belong here in the first place.

“Friends,” he says, his voice a sliver of melancholy as he finally got the courage to approach them. “I am so sorry for your loss. I give out my entire heart to you.”

Leo raises his eyes toward him briefly, but the three do not respond. Usagi sighs, attempting to keep his eyes from watering.

“You were brought to our dimension because Jei had summoned you. Now that he is dead, you may return home,” he informs them.

“H-Home?” Donnie asks, turning up weakly.

“Yes,” Usagi responds, gesturing to a bright portal to his right. “Are you boys ready to return?”

Leo and Raph stand, both using their strength to cradle Mikey. Donnie holds one of his hands, turning back to Usagi and giving a slight nod.

“Good luck to you, Usagi. I won’t forget you,” Leo says, and Usagi weakly smiles.

He bets they won’t forget him.

“Everything will be okay, boys,” is all he can tell them, even though he knows that things are certainly far from being okay. He just hopes they have a parent back home to help them through this – something that he himself never had.

Just as subtly as they had appeared, they were back sitting on their couch, in front of the buzzing television. They were all silent for a moment, trying to figure out if they truly were home.

“Guys, you’re back!”

The girl’s chipper voice confirmed their return, but they didn’t have the strength to look up at her.

April had been rotting herself out sick with worry since the guys had disappeared in thin air this morning – she had witnessed it with her bare eyes and couldn’t find a logical explanation and she was completely going insane. “Casey, come out here, they’re back!”

She raised an eyebrow, losing her excited mood as she examined them more carefully. “Guys?”

Leo, Raph, and Donnie were shadowed with blood, although they seemed to have little physical pain. She couldn’t see Mikey well, other than his feet and his little orange bandana tails, and the fact that he was still in his brothers’ arms.

Something terrible had happened.

She hesitantly came closer, her eyes widening with every step that she took. “Guys?”

“April,” Donnie answered hoarsely, a deranged whisper.

She bit the bullet and ran over, halting in shock when her eyes focused on the image before her.

Mikey was cut open by a gruesome, evil laceration, almost his entire body bathed in blood, and he was very obviously void of life.

She stood still for a moment, her face hung open and her eyes narrowing. Her breathing becomes more rapid, until she cannot control it any longer – an intense screaming with enough power to blast everything around her.

Casey came running, shaken up and trembling before he even knew what had happened yet. He skidded to the rest of the group, shaking into place when he saw what has happened.

“Oh my god,” he whispered, repeating it in horror and holding his hand over his mouth. He jumps down and leans over his friend, examining him. Casey Jones didn’t like to cry, and he would never let anyone see him cry, but seeing his most innocent friend as a slaughtered corpse completely broke him open.

April crawled over as well, digging her head into Mikey’s bandana in denial, and the group of teenagers remained there for the rest of the night – mourning the loss of their most precious light.

X

Four days later, they were on their way upstate to the farmhouse to lay their little brother to rest.

Kirby was driving them all in his van, as they were too distraught to drive on their own. Leo kept his hand over the coffin Donnie had built, just perfectly built for Mikey’s petite size, horrifying him to ponder its contents. April was sitting in the front seat and staring down silently, and Donnie was staring numbly into space, and Raph was leaning on Casey in hopes for comfort. The drive was simultaneously stagnant yet agile, cars containing all of their friends trailing behind them.

The sky was traced in clouds and thunder without rain, because even the universe would never again shine without their sunshine. It was a perfectly somber day to bury their little brother.

The whole was already dug and prepared, perfectly fitting for the small and delicate coffin. The coffin was painted with all of his favorite characters and pizza and cats, because someone like Michelangelo Hamato could not ever spend an eternity in blandness.

They lay the coffin before it, April tying white roses to it as Casey set up their wooden podium. The circle began to grow – the Mighty Mutanimals, Mona, Renet, Karai and Shinigami, and even Napoleon were all present to mourn the loss of one of the brightest lights they would ever know. Renet was whimpering in a small and vulnerable ball, comforted by everyone around her. Leatherhead hung his head down sadly, and it was obvious that he would snap any second now. Mondo placed a hand on Casey’s shoulder and Mona held onto Raphael. Karai wanted to go to Leo, but the sharp look on his face told everyone that he didn’t want to talk.

“Thank you all for coming,” he says solemnly, keeping his eyes locked on the podium. “More importantly, thank you for being a part of my baby brother’s life. We didn’t have a lot growing up, and especially not other people, and I never thought that one day, he could have a friend. Now, you are all here because you gave him his wish – to love and to be loved. Now, we sit under this rain because once you know Michelangelo, your life will never be the same without him. Just like his would have never been the same without you.”

Leo took a second to compose himself, taking in a deep breath and tightening his fists.

“He loved you, and you loved him. The grief of losing him is a pain that we all must share, but no one shares my memory of my little brother dying in my arms. Before he died, he told me that he didn’t like to see me sad. Likewise, he doesn’t want any of us to be sad. He would rather we celebrate his life and his existence, and no matter how hard that will be for me, I am going to do it for him – and I expect you to do so too.”

“Today,” he continues, “We are not only here to send my baby brother away. We are here to remember Michelangelo, to celebrate what he has done for all of our lives.”

Leo takes a deep breath, keeping his eyes closed. “Michelangelo was my light and my sanity. My family and I have been through hell and back, and despite everything trying to tear us down, he was there and he made me know that everything was going to be okay. When I was in over my head, he was always there to snuggle me and bring out our old games and VCR tapes and it always reminded me of who I am. When we were in times void of hope, he was there and he was smiling and laughing and his light always blinded us from the dark, he always chased the demons away. Without him now, I don’t know how I’m ever going to get through it…”

Tears stream down his cheeks, and he finally opens his eyes to look at all of them.

“While I was holding him, he told me that he would always be with me, just not in the way that I would think. He has never lied to me in his life, unless it was about who ate the last slice of pizza,” everyone chuckles tearfully. “So, I’m going to trust his word on that. I know that no matter what comes for me, Mikey will be here to shine his light. And I know that he is here with us right now,” Leo’s tears quicken in pace. “I love you, little brother. I am so proud of you, so very proud of you, and I will never forgive myself for not telling you that enough.  I’ll see you in our next adventure, okay?”

“Mikey is the best person to ever exist,” Raph says, following up with Leo. “Growing up, he always told me how much he wished to be like me, and secretly I just wished that I could be like him. His heart was pure and magic, and he was protected by his immense imagination. He didn’t have a single hateful bone in his body and his spirit was soft and free, and what I would give to be like that. Whenever I felt consumed by my own hate, he took it all away by giving me so much love. He deserved to travel the world, and to make friends with everyone inside of it. He deserved to marry a best friend one day, and to make all of us prouder every day and to live happily ever after. What I’ve learned in the past few years is that life never gives someone what they deserve, and it’s an endless shithole that continues to suck up all of its good. As our father would say, one leaves this universe when their soul is ready to, ready to proceed to another dimension somewhere out there. Mikey was too pure for this world, and now he is somewhere where a golden soul belongs. I only hope that I can continue to make myself better, so that one day I can follow and join him. I love you Mikester. I love you more than everything I have, and I always will. I’ll keep fighting for you, baby brother. I promise.”

Mona gives him a small smile of sympathy, wiping her own tear as Donnie joins the two.

Donnie’s eye bags were almost as big as his eyes themselves, his expression dead and obvious severely sleep deprived.

“Ever since we were born, Mikey has been my best friend. We were the runts of the pack, the younger ones, so naturally we had each other more than anyone. He was loud, and hyper, and absolutely annoying – but he was my best friend. He was always by my side when I was working in the lab, and although it seemed he was being intentionally annoying, I knew that he only wanted my company. Secretly, I would get sad without his too. I don’t know how I’ll face the lab anymore, or anything in my house. Everything will be so dull without him, and my house will never again feel like home. Mikey was home, he was warm and safe and welcoming. He was what you always came back to, and his security always kept you safe. Without him, I have no home to go back to, and I don’t know how I’m ever going to cope with that,” he begins crying, “I can’t sleep without the chance that he’ll break in my room at 3 in the morning after a bad dream, I can’t wake up in the morning without smelling whatever breakfast he made us today. I can’t train without waiting for him to come tumbling in ten minutes late, and I can’t go into the living room without hearing his cartoons. I can’t live without Michelangelo, because Michelangelo lived in everything I had.”

Donnie holds his nose to stop the sniffling, being held by Raph and Leo.

“Mikey was everyone’s little brother. Even for some of us who never knew what it was like to have one,” Donnie says, looking down at April and Casey who were tearfully smiling back at him. “He had a big heart in a little body, and he spent it loving everyone who ever came around him. He always told me he wishes he was as smart as I am, but like Raph said, I wished so dearly that I could be so rich in love as he was. Going back to before, Mikey lives in everything that I have. That being said, his bright aura and love and compassion and optimism still live with me too. I’ll keep living for him, because like Leo said, that’s what he would have wanted. I will feel like in everything that I do, keep at doing everything for him. I’ll never be the same, as none of us will. We will always have a chunk of us missing, but his spirit will not allow it to be a whole. Just as he always has, he shines through the clouds and keeps us safe through the dark times, and he will always be here with us. With all of us. I know you hearing me now, Mikey, and I also know you love sucking up all this attention,” he chuckles. “It’s okay to rest now, little one. I promise you’re safe now. You will never truly die, because a soul as bright as yours will keep shining forever.”

Donnie places his flower on top of the coffin, followed by Raph and Leo. They open it up, taking a deep breath to keep peace with his sleeping body. He was so still and calm, something that Mikey never was. Even in his sleep, he kicked and moved constantly, as he was always so full of movement. Now, he was as still as he could ever be, and his brothers thought that now he can truly rest.

Raph places his teddy bear in under his arm, and Leo tucks his skateboard to his side. Donnie rests his favorite comic book in his other side, and April and Casey lay out his favorite action figure collectibles. They all look up and weakly smile at each other, knowing that finally, their Mikey can be at peace.

It is solemn and painful to bury him, just as it was to bury their father only months ago. Yet they felt his spirit present, felt him keeping them warm as they rested his body.

Once the coffin was buried, everyone surrounded it to pay their respects. There was silence, tears, hugs and comfort, until everyone else had left. Leo, Raph, Donnie, April and Casey remained, laying in a huddle around him and staring up at the sky.

Nightfall was approaching, but the area was already shaded by the grey clouds. In one of the corners of the clouds, the sun peaked out – shining down onto them and warming their skin. They all couldn’t help but smile, silently knowing that he is there for them. Even in the clouds, he was there to keep them warm.

They knew even if his light went out, his warmth would never stop burning.


End file.
